This invention is directed to coin operated vending machines, more particularly to vending machines for dispensing horizontally disposed articles, such as newspapers, magazines, and other articles from the upper end of a stack thereof. Various structures have been disclosed to dispense articles such as newspapers and magazines in the past, and a number of them are disclosed in the following United States patents: Nos.
______________________________________ 479,688 1,886,694 3,709,405 3,168,212 918,639 2,904,214 3,960,291 2,501,434 1,088,142 3,062,406 1,817,740 3,174,608 1,216,907 3,565,284 3,107,770 3,265,177 ______________________________________
For a variety of reasons, the machines proposed for vending one article at a time have not been widely adopted and the newspaper vending machine in widest use today is believed to be the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,608 in which the newspapers are supported in a generally vertical plane and a coin controlled access door is opened to permit the party who inserted the coins to remove a newspaper. The problem with such vending machines is, of course, that, once access is obtained, the entire stack of newspapers can be removed. Becuase of the considerable variety of money saving coupons which are provided in newspaper advertisements these days, which people need only to clip out of the newspaper and use in a retail store to obtain a considerable discount, or to obtain additional items of the type purchased for no cost, there is an incentive for people to accumulate as many newspapers as possible to obtain these coupons for their own use, or sale to others. Thus, considerable difficulty is now being encountered with vending machines of this type which depend upon the honesty and goodwill of the people using them.
One of the prime objects of the present invention is to provide a vending machine of the type which dispenses only a single article at a time and yet, is of relatively simple construction and thus, is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and maintain. The machine to be described, for instance, avoids the need in previous single article vendors to continuously elevate the stack each time a newspaper or like article has been vended, and accordingly requires no complex mechanism for incrementally raising the stack.
Another object of the invention is to provide a vending machine which has the flexibility to disepnse articles of varying thickness in an efficient and reliable manner, using mechanism which operates simply in a trouble free manner to deliver the newspaper or other article to a vending slot.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a coin operated vending machine whose principles of operation are such that, not only newspapers, but also magazines, books, and other appropriate products for the mechanism claimed can be dispensed utilizing the inventive concepts which will be described.
Another object of the invention is to provide improved and unique vending machines which are extremely difficult to loot and vandalize.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a coin controlled latching mechanism for preventing the operation of the vending machine until the proper coin, of combination of coins, is inserted, the latching mechanism being of simple and uncomplicated construction and operative with mechanism which dispenses the newspaper by rotating it through substantially a 90.degree. arc to a position in which it is exposed in the vending slot and can be pulled the rest of the way out.
Another object is to provide a coin controlled latch bar, which, in a reliable manner, will free the dispensing mechanism for operation when proper coins are inserted in the coin chute.